These instructions were made for the base OS being Windows XP. I have tried to add small tips for the installation on a Mac. After "Starting the Virtual Machine" the instructions only matter for the virtual machine so it doesn't matter what your base OS after that point.

• Installation
  • Download CSIF Fedora 9 Appliance
  • Un-rar the Virtual machine, ie F9-1s.rar
  • Change Memory Setting
  • Download vmplayer 2.x
  • Install VMware player 2.x
    • Here is how I installed it:
• Starting the Virtual Machine
• Setup the Virtual Machine
  • Root password
  • Add user
  • Add more Programs to the Virtual Machine
• Applications
  • vmware-toolbox
• Maintenance
  • Yum updates
• Troubleshooting
  • Resolution
  • CD not connecting
  • Vmplayer's toolbar
• Updating VMware Player
• Updating VMware Server

Installation

Download CSIF Fedora 9 Appliance

This is the VMware appliance that I have built. This takes the longest so might as well get it started. The file is 1.46 GB, so make sure you have room to download. Use any browser and go to:

http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/F9-1s.rar
(md5sum = bf4d686afd0a8f020227106f3a5912ad)

Save the file. (Right after starting the appliance download, you can start the VMware Player download and installation, once F9-1s.rar is done downloading you can come back to the instructions on how to unrar it.)

Un-rar the Virtual machine, ie F9-1s.rar

Mac Users: You will need to download unrarx from: http://www.unrarx.com/

Windows Users: If you don't have winrar, download it from here:
http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm <---- The top one seems to be the Windows version.
Then install winrar.

Once winrar is installed, right click on the file F9-1s.rar and choose "Extract files..."
You will see:

I created a directory called "C:/Virtual Machines", VMware Player creates a directory in your "My Documents" directory called "My Virtual Machines". I suggest extracting the files to either of those 2 directories. Then hit "OK" to begin the extraction.

Note: The extraction can take up tp 20 minutes.

Change Memory Setting

If your computer has less than 2GB of RAM, or you just want to change how much memory Fedora can have, you will want to modify the fedora virtual machine's configuration file so that you specify how much RAM VMPlayer is allowed to reserve for Fedora. By default, the setting is for 1GB of RAM.
Note: Users with less than 1GB of RAM may experience problems when trying to run some programs on Fedora.

1) Open the F9-1s folder that you extracted.
2) Open the Linux2.6.xkernel.vmx file in an editor such as notepad.
3) Modify the line "memsize" (it should be the 6th line) to read the amount of RAM you wish to allocate for Fedora. As a general rule, you should give it 1/2 of your total RAM. So if your machine has 1536 MB RAM, Change memsize to 768.
4) Save the file, and proceed to the next steps.

Download vmplayer 2.x

Download vmplayer 2.x from: http://www.vmware.com/download/player/
Mac users: You will need to get VMWare Fusion from: http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/ Unfortunately, its not free.

Install VMware player 2.x

Here is how I installed it:

Hit "Next" to get Started.




I used the default location, so I just hit "Next". Change it if you like.




I unchecked the "Start Menu Programs Folder" and the "Quick Launch toolbar" but it doesn't really matter.




Hit "Install" to get things installing.




Hit "Finish" and vmware player is now installed.

Starting the Virtual Machine

Start VMware Player.
Here is the VMware Player Desktop icon.

Double click it to start it.


Find where you extracted the F9-1s directory from the F9-1s.rar file, inside that directory is a file with an extention .vmx, choose that file in the above window and hit "Open". The full name should be "Other Linux 2.6.x kernel".

If it is the first time starting up the Virtual Machine you will see:

Choose "I copied it" and hit "OK".

Now your virtual machine should be fired up and ready to go, you should see:

Setup the Virtual Machine

Root password

If you haven't added a user then the only account on the system is root, root is the administrator login for Fedora. The default password is: abc123

Add user

If you don't have an account yet, login to your virtual machine as root.

To add an account run system-config-users:

Fedora System menu ---> Administration ---> Users and Groups.

Here is a picture of the menu from system-config-users:

Hit the "Add User" button.

You will see:

Fill in: User Name, Full Name, and Password. Everything else should be good by default, although I prefer the tcsh login shell over bash but that is up to you. Then hit OK. If you see your new user on the list then pull down the file menu and hit quit. Logout and try your new user account.

Add more Programs to the Virtual Machine

I wanted to keep the initial install of the Virtual Machine small. So, I excluded about 2 GB of programs. I wrote a bash script, /root/yum_install_all, to add those programs I excluded. The scriit /root/yum_install_all looks like this:


You can edit the script, /root/yum_install_all and comment out the programs you don't want or just run it and let them all install.

One way to run the script is to start a terminal:

Fedora Menu ---> System Tools ---> Terminal. Type "su" in the terminal and hit enter, then enter the root password.
Once logged in as root type "/root/yum_install_all".
Note: It will take several hours for everything to install, and it will take about an additional 6 GBs of disk space.

Applications

vmware-toolbox

vmware-toolbox gives you the ability to cut and paste between VMs and the host OS. Automatic mouse-cursor grabbing as you move between guest and host OS windows, and an easy way to attach and detach removable devices.

Maintenance

Yum updates

The system should be updated regularly. To do so, run the following command as root: "yum -y update". Most things are updated after installed but a reboot is required for anything related to the kernel.

Troubleshooting

Resolution

The default resolution on the Virtual machine is 1024x768, if this isn't the resolution you want to use do the below to change to your desired resolution.

Login as root if you haven't setup an account yet.
edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You can use the text editor in gnome by:
Fedora Applications menu ---> Accessories ---> Text Editor
Now open the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the editor.
Go to the bottom of the file and find the below section:



If you want a resolution of 1600x1000, put it in the front spot on the modes line so it looks like:

Modes "1600x1000" "1024x768"

save the file.


Then restart X, logging out of a graphic login will usually restart X.

Your resolution might be perfect at this point or you might have to do the below:
login as root again.
Start system-config-display by pulling down Fedora System menu ----> Administration ----> Display
choose the resolution you want.
close.
logout to restart X.
You should now be in the resolution you have chosen.

CD not connecting

One problem I have seen is that the auto-detect feature in vmware for the CDROM doesn't work. The solution is to tell the vmplayer what drive the CD is instead of auto-detecting.
Do this by modifying a file in the virtual machine directory that has an extention of. For example, "F7-1/Other Linux 2.6.x kernel.vmx" is the file you would modify for the CSIF virtual machine.

Here is what is in the file about the CDROM for auto-detect:

Here is what is in the file for the CDROM for assigning a drive:

So you change the line that reads:

to:

and add the line that reads:

Vmplayer's toolbar

vmplayer has a toolbar that is constantly on the desktop of the virtual machine. You can un-tack it and make it shrink but you can't get rid of it. My suggestion would be to move all the gnome or kde panels to the bottom of the screen.

Updating VMware Player

When you start your VMware Player application, a window may pop up prompting you to install the latest version of VMware Player. This is easy to do with the following steps:
1) Go to the update website by clicking the button on the prompt labeled "visit update web site".
2) The VMware Player version at the top is the latest, so click the "Download Now" button.
3) Fill out the required information on the following page and click "submit".
4) Download the installation file now.
5) Go to where the file was downloaded, and run it to install the new version of VMware player. It will prompt you saying that it needs to un-install the old version, say yes. This will not affect your virtual machines.
6) Once the installation is done, you have successfully updated your version of VMware Player!

Updating VMware Server

When you start your version of VMware Server, a window may pop up prompting you to install the latest version of VMware Server. This is easy to do with the following steps:
1) Go to the update website by clicking the button on the prompt labeled "visit update web site".
2) The VMware Server version at the top is the latest, so click the "Download Now" button.
3) Agree to the End User License Agreement.
4) Download the Binary (.exe) from the following page.
5) Run the downloaded executable file. It will prompt you saying it will un-install previous versions of VMware server, click yes. This will not affect your virtual machines.
6) It may also prompt you asking whether you want to save your old license files. This is up to you, but I would recommend saving them just in case the need ever arises.
7) Once the installation is complete, you have successfully updated your version of Vmware Server!s

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